A small Ontario town is taking a new route in public transit, opting to rely on Uber.
Innisfil, located approximately 45 minutes north of Toronto, is the first municipality in Canada to have a partnership with the ride-sharing service.
Like many other municipalities, Innisfil has been faced with financial pressures over the years and cannot afford the $280,000 bill per single bus line, per year.
Enter Uber.
“Our council determined that a bus system would be too expensive. So it was basically our quest to find an alternative system that’s not a bus, something that’s more cost effective, demand based,” Paul Pentikainen, Innisfil’s town planner, told CTV News Toronto.
“The Uber Pool with the ridesharing, being able to match two or more rides going in the same direction, was really the answer to an outside-of-the-box transit system.”
Pentikainen said the town reached out to the ride-sharing app and came up with an agreement tailored specifically to their some 36,000 residents.
The agreement, which will begin on May 1, will offer fares to locals set between $3 and $5.
The town will pay Uber the remainder of the fare, which is expected to cost approximately $100,000 in the first year. That number is a far cry from the cost of a transit system, town officials say.
Residents can take the rides from their homes to major points of transportation, such as the town centre or the area GO Transit Station on Yonge Street.
Though the Barrie South GO Train makes a stop in Innisfil, no other public transit exists within the town.
Jeff Wilton, an Uber driver based in Barrie, told CTV News Toronto that there are only a few drivers servicing the neighbouring Innisfil area but that he expects the number to increase next month.
“It gives me access to have my own hours,” he said of the job.
But not everyone is on board with the new partnership.
In cities across the county, taxi drivers have butted heads with ride-sharing services like Uber and Innisfil is not immune to the backlash.
Speaking to CTV News Barrie, the owner of the town’s family-run cab company, Global Taxi, says “Uber is destroying the industry.”
“My drivers will stick with me, but for how long?” Manjot Saini said. “That’s the question because everyone needs to make money.”
Saini said that cab drivers already pay higher insurance rates and parking fees at commercial spaces, and that it puts them in an unfair position in the industry.
Town officials say the cab companies will still be required for accessibility services, but Global Taxi says that won’t be enough of a client base for them to survive long-term.
But Innisfil mayor Gord Wauchope says a public transit system just didn’t make sense for the small town.
“It wouldn’t service everyone in the town,” Wauchope said. “Why should people pay a tax for something they don’t use?”
The town says Uber will provide and set up iPad stations at places like the local recreation centre so residents without smartphones can still use the app to get a ride home.
